


dirty talk

by leftishark



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Camping, Environmentalism, Epistolary, Humor, M/M, Mutual Pining, Quintessence Energy Allegory Played Straight, Real Life Issues, Science, Soil Science, Suggestive Themes, puns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:01:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29939349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leftishark/pseuds/leftishark
Summary: June 1Shiro is wearing aGeology Rocks!shirt and Ihatelove it.(Who am I kidding? I love everything about Shiro.)The field notebook of Keith K., postdoctoral researcher at Marmora University’s Department of Soil Sciences.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 46
Kudos: 59
Collections: Sheithlentines 2021





	dirty talk

**Author's Note:**

> A belated sheithlentines gift for anon#1! “Mutually pining scientists who go on a research trip together” was the perfect prompt. I went way overboard with background research and all my science thoughts and feelings. I'd like to add some art, too, but I wanted to get this up first. Thanks for your patience, and I hope you like the direction it goes! 
> 
> Thank you to the sheithlentines mods for putting this event together, and to all the friends who cheered me on. I couldn’t have done it without you!

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/183027291@N04/51023482772/in/dateposted-public/)

**_June 1_ **

Shiro is wearing a _Geology Rocks!_ shirt and I ~~hate~~ love it. 

(Who am I kidding? I love everything about Shiro.)

He’s got that shirt and a bucket hat and hiking pants and boots, and okay he does look like a bit of a dork in the whole geologist get-up, but it works for him. He looks—really good. I swear he’s gotten bigger since I saw him at the conference in December. 

It’s good to see him. Not just—god, I mean, not just to _see_ him—I mean I’ve missed him. We used to see each other every day, you know? I didn’t appreciate it fully then. (Can you appreciate anything fully when you’re doing a PhD?) Ever since he defended and left for Kerberos for his postdoc and then I went off to Marmora for mine, we’ve kept in touch and had lunch at conferences and all, but we haven’t talked nearly as much as we used to. At least, not until we started developing this project together. 

I can’t quite believe we’re finally out here, after all that—all those meetings with the tribal council and writing the proposal and months of planning. It’s been nearly a year since Romelle reached out looking for science collaborators. And if things go well, this pilot study will be just the beginning. 

There’s some law of fieldwork that something has to go wrong and if losing my personal journal is all it is, then I’ll count us lucky. The field notebook is all we have for writing, so now it’s doubling as my journal. It was Shiro’s suggestion; he knows that sometimes I need to write down what I can’t say out loud, and he trusts me to manage the field notes. I just feel so _much_ sometimes and it gets stuck in my lungs and I know I’ll need to let it out somewhere while we’re out here, because no field methods course, handbook, guide, or anything prepares you for spending three weeks camping with a colleague you’ve loved for years. 

**_June 2_ **

I could watch Shiro dig soil pits all day. 

God, he’s just. Got so many muscles. And he’s down an arm—the rest of them are just so big, and his shirt sticks to all of them when he gets sweaty, which means all day out here.

-:-

Turns out, digging soil pits with Shiro is a dangerous activity—I dumped a shovel full of soil onto the wrong pile because Shiro was squatting down. Only on him would nylon be flattering. Luckily, we have a ground rule (ha ha) to take a lot of breaks, and we alternate when we get toward the bottom of the pit where two people and two shovels are a crowd, which makes it easier to appreciate the view.

Also, it keeps us from overexerting ourselves. Shiro’s stretching the strain from his prosthesis out of his shoulders now; it does amazing things for his deltoids. 

He keeps looking over at me, and here I am staring at him. But he just smiles before I can look back down.

I could give him a massage, help him work out that tension. I really want to. Would that be weird?

-:-

It wasn’t weird. At least, Shiro seemed like it wasn’t weird. He seemed like he enjoyed it.

**_June 3_ **

It feels really good to be out here. I haven’t gotten to do fieldwork in a couple years while I was writing my dissertation and everything, but this is what I love about soil science. I mean, I’ve always loved ~~dirt~~ ~~soil~~ dirt, ever since I was a kid, but fieldwork is what makes all the other bullshit of the job worthwhile.

(Sometimes I still think of it as dirt, when I’m thinking about the physicality, the getting your hands in it, the fine particles sticking to your skin. 

_Soil_ can be so… intellectual. I mean, I get that it’s more dignified: soil is how we name all of its components, the mineral and organic, and its place within greater mineral and organic and climate systems, geology and hydrology and ecology. And it’s not just soil scientists who say soil; it’s gardeners too, and farmers. I don’t know. It’s both—I’ll never be one of those assholes who stick up their nose if you call it dirt. Call it whatever you want, as long as you respect it.)

This land is something special. Tall, blocky red mesa ahead of us, open basin below, pinyon pines and sagebrush all around us on the alluvial slopes. It’s quiet, no sound but our voices, no movement but our shovels in the dirt and the occasional prairie dog.

Being out here with the sun and the stars and the soil and Shiro—this is everything I need. 

**_June 4_ **

I looked back at the first day’s ramblings where I called Shiro a _colleague_ and had to stare at it for a minute. 

We are colleagues, and I guess we’ve always been colleagues, ever since I did that summer undergrad internship in Coran’s lab with Shiro as my mentor, certainly since I officially joined the lab as a grad student. The thing is, I’ve always looked up to him—Shiro taught me everything I know. When I told him that, he said that he’s learned just as much from me. I’m not sure what he means by that—he showed me how to run a mass spectrometer and how to make talks that won’t put people to sleep, and he read over my drafts when Coran was being flaky, which was most of the time. And now we’re both postdocs in this weird liminal space between clueless student and faculty, like some adolescent deer finding our legs as independent scientists. 

It’s strange being co-PIs on the project—we’re in charge here, and we’ve got to figure it out together. Strange, but right, and deeply satisfying in a way I don’t know else how to express. 

**_June 5_ **

I’d forgotten how many of these shirts Shiro has. Yesterday he was wearing _schist happens_ ; today it’s _loam wasn’t built in a day_. It’s stupid how nostalgic they make me feel. 

**_June 6_ **

Every day we stop working in time to sit and watch the sunset, and it’s just like all those evenings when Shiro would grab me from the lab or my office and we’d go out together to the balcony of Voltron Hall to watch the sky turn colors, and when the sun disappeared over the horizon we’d just stand there in silence for a few moments, and then he’d turn and look at me with that smile of his and I’d wonder what it would be like to kiss him right there. 

The feeling is part of me now, so familiar that I don’t notice it most of the time. It’s like how I’ll look at a rock and go, oh that’s a breccia, that’s a gneiss, or I’ll look at a landscape and know roughly how it formed without thinking about it. I look at Shiro and know that I love him. And in moments like that I feel it just a little more, just enough to have to hold myself back.

**_June 7_ **

A few sites is too early to draw any real conclusions, but so far, the sites that have been traditionally farmed have deeper surface horizons and a more pronounced clayey layer below than sites that haven’t been farmed (at least not farmed within the historical record—it’s hard to say since Zuni have been practicing agriculture here continuously for at least two thousand years). If this pattern holds up, we’ll have a solid case for turning this pilot study into a large-scale, long-term project—and ultimately validating the farmers’ claims that traditional agriculture enhances soil quality, that it is a productive use of the land.

It’s real bullshit that productivity is a requirement for land to be valued and protected, and for the tribe to have any real say in the negotiations. 

Anyway—I can’t let that get to me. The tribe has asked us to support them with research, and the research is promising! Obviously the farmers know what they’re doing without our help, but quantifying these changes in soil morphology will be powerful support for their case. 

I hope.

 ~~They’re~~ We’re up against a giant. I don’t fear career repercussions or whatever, but the responsibility is a lot to hold. 

The basin is being explored for quintessence to make batteries for the so-called renewable energy transition, right, and there’s so much momentum behind that. So much money. Sincline Minerals is selling the project as green and sustainable and all that. A new mining method, exchanging ions and returning the waste water to the aquifer instead of evaporating it like it’s mined elsewhere to concentrate the quintessence. But this method is untested, its environmental impacts unknown, and of course they’re not bringing up any of those potential issues—releasing toxic metals due to altered water chemistry or destabilizing the active fault zone by displacing water from one area to another. And really, it _shouldn’t_ be tested—this isn’t just an experiment in a lab; it’s a real place with real water, land, air, and life. 

It makes me want to shatter the limits of my expertise. I can characterize the soil, and that’s great, but what would really be useful would be a comprehensive understanding of the water system. Soil is part of it, an important part, but we need to understand both surface and subsurface waters, freshwater and quintessence-rich brine, and how they interact. And limited knowledge aside, I can’t stand how _slow_ research is: years to conceptualize and fund a project, do the fieldwork, do the labwork, publish. 

Patience yields focus, that’s what Shiro always says. It got both of us through some tough times—a daily mantra those three months that we spent fixing the mass spec, and fixing it again a year later. I guess the dirt’s not going anywhere. That’s another thing I like about it: there’s an ancientness to it, rock eroding to sediment and sediment turning to clay and organic matter accumulating little by little over thousands, millions, of years. 

**_June 8_ **

Went back into town for food and water, showered at Romelle’s. Did a load of laundry, although I think Shiro’s only gone through half his shirts. He says they’re mostly gifts—they started from his dad, as one of those things your parents do when they don’t know what else you like, and then they became a thing. Anyway, the laundry was mainly for his arm socks and my feet socks; neither of us had quite enough for the whole trip with how much we’ve been changing them, but now we’re good. 

There’s no cell service out where we’ve been, and the number of emails I’ve gotten in a week is completely absurd. Maintenance notices for the aerospace building on the other side of campus. Drama on the soils listserv about the new department logo. Doesn’t everyone have better things to procrastinate with. 

I almost missed one important email in all the noise: I got the Institutional Postdoc at Komar! I didn’t think they’d pick me—I don’t have that many publications, and we all know that’s all academia cares about—but I guess they liked the project I proposed. Of course Shiro’s all, “Of course you got it, Keith!” God. I should’ve known I had a good chance with Shiro’s support putting together my application (though he won’t take credit for any of it). It really is a victory for both of us, since the proposal is the next step of this pilot study with him as a collaborator. I will die if I write down how his arms felt around me when we hugged, but I wish I could just stay there forever and not have to think about what the postdoc means.

I’ll have to really think it over. The department at Komar is general Earth Sciences rather than soils, which is way more common and wouldn’t be a big issue except that they’re basically in Silicon Valley, and I’ve heard their industry ties are even stronger than typical geoscience departments. A lot of connections, but not the ones I want. Though at this point, I don’t really know what I want after another postdoc… academia drains your soul, industry is extractive, there’s some government research but a lot of it is about maximizing agricultural output and even the conservation framework is historically fucked up, though nowadays it’s typically more collaborative with communities. 

All I know is I want to work with soil and I want to work with Shiro.

-:-

We got beer to celebrate tonight. Neither of us drinks like an actual geologist in the field (the frat boys in undergrad… godawful, couldn’t stand them), but it’s a special occasion. I’ll get them out after I set up my sleeping bag in here; I just need a second, because I could swear Shiro’s tent is closer than it was at the first sites.

Wishful thinking.

**_June 9_ **

I’m never coming out of this tent. 

Last night we’d each had a few drinks and we were talking about subduction zones for some godforsaken reason, and Shiro was wearing that stupid _subduction leads to orogeny_ shirt that Lance gave him, and I accidentally said ~~seduction zones~~ and I tried to correct myself but I said seduction _again_ , fuck, I couldn’t stop talking, and then _Shiro_ said seduction zones to, I don’t know, make me feel better? I finally got subduction out right and then I had to ruin it with, “Shiro, you’re my subduction zone,” what the fuck, and then he goes, “Subduct me, baby”—

We were laughing at this point because it was so ridiculous but when he said _baby_ I melted like actual subducting rock. God, I had no idea I’d have a thing for that. We were kind of leaning into each other already, and then he put his arm around me as part of the whole joke, which was a perfectly good reason to cling onto him, all warm and bulky. I just wish it had been real.

But it’s not. Even if I wonder sometimes… 

I can hear him unzipping his tent now. Which, yeah, is definitely closer than it was before. I’ll have to face him sooner or later; I can’t leave him to dig by himself.

-:-

It’s fine. We’re good, nothing is different, everything is normal, which is good. Cool.

**_June 10_ **

We’re high enough up the alluvial fan now that we can see Sincline’s exploratory drill site down in the basin. It doesn’t look like much from this far away, just a few trucks and a drill rig, but even that is out of place. 

At least there’s a few friendly prairie dogs at this site to distract from the view. Three of them, one big and two smaller ones. They watch us from the shrubs just beyond our camp and ~~they’re the cutest things I’ve ever seen~~ the cutest thing I’ve ever seen is Shiro mimicking them.

-:-

Today as we settled in to watch the sunset, Shiro held his arm out with a real soft, “Hey,” so I leaned into his side and we sat like we did the other night, except that this time neither of us was the least bit tipsy.

**_June 11_ **

I said I’d make lunch while Shiro organizes the sample box, but I keep staring at those trucks. 

Sincline didn’t consult the tribe before they started drilling, Romelle told us. It gives the tribe a basis for the injunction, but even that isn’t guaranteed. So she and the others who are down have been laying out multiple strategies: they blocked the road a few months ago and are planning to do it again if the permit is approved. They’re working with us. I hope ~~it’s~~ we’re enough.

Lunch. Focus. Bread and peanut butter. Bell peppers and hummus.

I can see it, five or ten years from now: a processing plant spewing toxic shit, spilled reagents, giant trucks driving in and out every day kicking up dust, pipes running across the basin like the black snakes that carry oil, except that these carry fossil water instead, also ancient and nonrenewable. All in the name of greenwashed energy, because this fucked up system would rather tear every bit of earth apart than change to live with less. 

How can we sacrifice land for batteries? Water for batteries? People for batteries? 

I want to SCREAM but the only person to hear me is Shiro, and it’s not him I want to scream at. 

**_June 12_ **

Shiro gives the best hugs.

-:-

We talked about… that stuff from yesterday, and from before. He could tell something was up, he always can, and he always knows just how to ask.

Thank fuck I had it all written down—I just showed him the rant under yesterday’s notes instead of having to put it into words again. He gets it, of course; preventing quintessence mining was Romelle’s motivation for reaching out to us about this project in the first place. 

Shiro’s never said much about what he did before his PhD—he’s a few years older, even accounting for starting our degrees two years apart. I just knew he did some kind of consulting thing. Turns out he used to be on the other side, writing Environmental Impact Reports for these companies. It was the most obvious option after graduating and everyone encouraged him to do it, but he realized after a while that he was basically just rubber stamping projects that shouldn’t have gone through.

So he gets my frustration with the situation here; he’s seen it over and over. Wanting to make things right explains the passion and drive for what he does now, although some of that is just plain old Shiro, and the fact that he changed his path is really admirable. 

I don’t know where I’m going with this, except to say that I’m more okay with the uncertainty now. There’s no map for this situation, no clear answers. Plenty to think about.

**_June 13_ **

Ranting aside, things have been going pretty smoothly overall, considering the laws of fieldwork. But there had to be a few more snags.

Today while we went off to a nice overlook for lunch, the prairie dogs came in and sniffed around our site. They are a lot less cute when they’re knocking over your soil samples (from today’s pit, easy enough to replace). On the other hand, Shiro looks just as cute when he’s scaring them away. 

The other thing is I didn’t wear my hat today and I missed sunscreen on part of my face, so now I have a weird sunburnt slash up my left cheek. It stings when I talk or eat. But it’s not so bad now that _I put_ Shiro put aloe vera on my face. 

(Yeah, Shiro put aloe vera on his fingers and put his fingers on my face, all gentle and caring. Who was I to refuse him?)

Today was hot and sunny, but it might have been the calm before the storm. We had a particularly beautiful sunset with the clouds coming in; we’ll see if they turn into an early episode of the summer monsoon.

**_June 14_ **

The rain did come. It held off till the afternoon, but we packed up what we needed to after lunch and readied the camp, set up a tarp over the cooking area, moved our tents to higher ground.

Or—moved my tent. I’m sharing it with Shiro. As in, I’m currently laying side by side with him, writing about him while he does sudoku, because his rain fly is busted (although it must be a small tear since I couldn’t see it from where I was, but anyway)—what else was I supposed to do, leave him to get drenched?

(Not thinking about rain-drenched Shiro with a wet shirt with stupid geology puns stuck to all his stupid muscles while we’re laying right next to each other, nope.)

So I saved him from the rain, and he saved the field notebook—I completely forgot I’d left it out by the soil pit. We saved each other.

The cover got a bit wet, but the inside is undamaged. He gave it back once we were settled in under the tarp drinking hot cider (the basic packaged kind, but it tastes so good in the rain). “Don’t worry,” he said, “your secrets are safe from me.” And he did his _I’m-just-teasing, Keith_ smile, the one that makes me feel like I’ve been knocked sideways onto a cloud. 

I—okay, I did freak out a little bit because, I mean, look at what’s in here. But I _know_ my words are safe. Shiro would never look if I didn’t say to. That’s why I love him—one reason why, of infinitely many. Still, it’s got me wondering now… what would it be like to actually tell him? Not just as some abstract theoretical impossibility, but to truly lay myself out for him, to let him know everything I feel for him?

**_June 15_ **

I could get used to waking up next to Shiro. It's strangely intimate, but in a nice way. He was the first thing I saw, and when he wakes up, I’ll be the first thing he sees. 

The rain stopped sometime during the night, and the morning looks bright outside the tent. A day full of possibility.

-:-

Instead of the usual routine today, we drove up into the watershed that feeds these slopes to see what it looks like after a precipitation event. The streams are ephemeral and the rain was short lived, so there wasn’t any active flow by the time we got here, but it was still cool to see the damp flow paths and just wander around with Shiro. We found a spring that feeds a small oasis, and in the midday heat the water was tempting enough to take a swim.

So I can check skinny dipping with Shiro off my bucket list.

We’re drying out on the rocks now. Or, I am; Shiro is stretching, completely naked. His back’s stiff from the past few weeks, he says, or something. If I die and this is the last anyone hears from me, know that I died happily suffering.

(I guess Shiro would be the one to see this first. Fuck.)

-:-

I’m out of clean shirts, so Shiro lent me one of his.

The shirt says _Looking For My Soil Mate_ with these two potatoes reaching toward each other like they’re yearning or something. Shiro has no idea how accurate it is for me to be wearing it, yearning potato that I yam. He looked at me kind of funny when I put it on—it is a bit big on me because it’s Shiro’s, of course, what did he expect?

On second thought, it’s not entirely accurate, because I’m not looking—I’ve already found someone who gets me, who I want to be with in whatever way I can for the rest of my life. And maybe, just maybe, he’s found me, too.

-:-

The sun is close to setting. Shiro hasn’t set his tent back up.

I’m not opposed to sharing a tent for the rest of the trip. Not at all. I’d love it. But I feel like my chest will burst with how much I feel for him, and I can’t keep it in much longer.

It’s tricky, when you’re colleagues and collaborators and your relationship is already the most important, special thing. Maybe, for us, it doesn’t have to be. We’ve grown even closer out here and I trust that we can figure this out, whatever he feels in return. 

Some truths aren’t meant to be known but this one is too big not to share.

I’m going to do it. I’m going to go over there and while we watch the sunset I’m going to tell him.

-:-

Shiro—

This is the only way I can say this right now. Maybe, if you want me to, I can say it out loud next. 

First, I don’t expect anything from you. I’m so, so grateful to be your friend and colleague and to be doing this work with you. But I need to you to know:

I love you.

I love you I love you I love y—

**_June 16_ **

I want to scream again, I want to run up this slope and leap all the way back down, I want to sprout wings and fly—

because Shiro—

He took my hand as I was writing, and he said my name and asked me to look at him and then he kissed me—he _kissed me!_

I’m floating again remembering it. I can’t stop _smiling_. How long have I wanted this without ever imagining how it would be? It was everything at once, warm, tender, like I could feel his heart on his lips—surprising only for a moment, and then it felt like it was always meant to be. 

When I could breathe again, I said the words out loud. God, that rush! A rush of joy, not fear—I always thought it would be terrifying to be known like that but I’ve never felt so safe, with the way he touched me and looked at me like I was, I don’t know, something precious.

I kissed him, then, not so soft, and the rest I can’t put to paper. Who knew that such a gentleman had such a mouth on him? Oh god, the things he said—the things _I_ said—

We still have a lot to talk about, but we’ve established the most important thing: he knows that I love him, and I know that he welcomes my love. 

**_June 17_ **

I still haven’t stopped smiling.

It’s a good thing we have most of the campaign behind us already. If I thought Shiro was distracting before, now I know he’s showing off— _flirting_ with me, god—the way he flexes when he knows I’m looking and he’ll catch my eye, and what am I supposed to do but go over there and kiss him? He’s even worse with me, I swear, I’m just shoveling soil like the professional I am when he comes up and looks me up and down—I’m not even trying to do anything!

Huh. What would happen if I did… 

**_June 19_ **

I exaggerate how much we’re fooling around during the day; we do both care about the work, so it’s mostly looks and words. Still, there’s no one else I’d rather dig soil pits with. We work well together, and the chemistry we’ve always had is stronger than ever. 

When we put down our shovels, though, ha. All the promise that’s built up over the day has free reign. I’ve been sleeping less, but sleeping better.

This is all new to me. I’ve been pretty hung up on Shiro since I was twenty-one and there wasn’t anyone before that. But it’s… _fun_. I’ve never laughed this much in my life, never felt this constantly good. 

I haven’t been writing as much because a lot of what I used to write down I can now just say to Shiro. We’ve been figuring it out. As well as I knew him, there’s more to learn—like that he’s smooth as clay until he’s not. I can’t believe him—he wanted to ask me out the first time he brought me out to the balcony to watch the sunset, but he, I quote, was distracted by how beautiful I looked and missed the moment. So then we watched the sunset together for the next four years. 

We’re hopeless. 

He hasn’t said exactly what I said to him, but I don’t mind; it took me this many years to say it, and I had all that time to grow comfortable with the feeling. I know he cares for me and he has for a long time. I know he’s not going anywhere. Neither am I.

**_June 20_ **

We’ve been talking about other things, too—about the future, our future and where we want our research to go, individually and together.

One of the other postdocs at Kerberos—her name is Allura—started a small working group that he’s part of where they read and discuss social science critiques of Earth sciences. Cool people. We’re going to reach out to them first, and then to other groups and people like that that we know of, to form a network of researchers who can support communities when they ask for it. Imagine sending shitty Environmental Impact Reports to experts who can tear apart every element. None of us knows enough on our own, but together we could be great. (Imagine Shiro saying that.)

So that’s something he and I are going to start putting together as collaborators, as comrades, as partners in every sense of the word. It doesn’t stop there; eventually we want to do outreach with undergrads to show them alternatives to the typical career paths they’re given, and how cool would it be to have an independent physical lab space outside of a university? They’re big dreams and it’ll take a lot of time and effort to get there, but I’m really excited, to be honest—and hopeful.

> Preliminary Contacts for Insurgent Research Network  
>  Allura – environmental toxicology – Kerberos  
>  Lance – community health -  
>  Hunk – anthropology (not shitty)  
>  Pidge – remote sensing  
>  Acxa – hydrogeology, physical modeling  
>  Ulaz – groundwater geochemistry  
>  Kolivan – hydrogeology 

**  
_June 21_   
**

The prairie dogs are back to say goodbye. I’m pretty sure they’re the same ones; we’re back at that site to check the sediment trap we installed before we head out. 

I suppose I’m in a more generous mindset these days, but they really are cute. We got some good pictures of them. We took some pictures together, too; neither of us is really one for photos, but Shiro’s a sap and I’m finding that so am I.

**_June 22_ **

Back in town, shipping samples back and meeting with Romelle, & co before we leave. We’ll still need to add chemical analyses, of course, but it does look like the cultivated soils are more developed than the uncultivated ones; she was excited to ear that. I typed up the actual field notes and sent them to Shiro, just in case, though if anything happens to this book I will lose my mind.

-:-

Beds are great, and that’s all I’ll say about that.

**_June 23_ **

I’m not ready to say goodbye. We’ve just gotten started. We’re already making plans to visit—see if we can swing him as a seminar speaker at Marmora, and me at Kerberos. 

Patience yields focus. The time we’ve had together has been really special. I have to remember that we have a long time ahead of us, and a lot of big decisions to make together.

I think I will take the Komar postdoc. We’ll need contacts in every corner—people who understand the battery side and supply chains and how industry geologists think so we can be strategic in our response. 

And in the meantime, we’ll build this network of scientists on the other side, so eventually we can create a different way to do science—because science isn’t just about some pure objective truth; it’s about knowledge, and therefore power. Instead of upholding the powers that already exist, it can be used to take them down, to raise up other ways of being.

With Shiro, anything is possible.

-:-

Keith –

I’ve always admired your courage and your honesty. Now it’s my turn. You won’t see this until you get back, but I’m taking a page from your book to tell you something important, and this way you can see it as many times as you want. Call me and I’ll tell you again, and I'll come visit as soon as I can because I can't wait to tell you face to face:

I found my soil mate when I met you. I love you, too.

Forever yours,

Shiro

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/183027291@N04/51023388931/in/dateposted-public/)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos and comments are always a gift <3
> 
> Twitter: [@leftishark_](twitter.com/leftishark_)
> 
> -:-
> 
> Quintessence here is a stand-in for lithium, which is being increasingly and unsustainably mined for electric vehicle batteries and other “renewable” energy storage. Much of it currently comes from brines in the high Andes of [ Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia,](%E2%80%9D) and from hard rock in Australia. In the U.S., brines have been mined in [Clayton Valley, Nevada](https://www.cypressdevelopmentcorp.com/projects/nevada/clayton-valley-lithium-project-nevada/), for decades, and more deposits are being explored by [Death Valley](https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-death-valley-lithium-mine-california-environment-20190507-story.html) (a national park) and the [Salton Sea](https://calmatters.org/environment/2021/02/california-desert-lithium-valley/) in southern California; in [southern New Mexico](https://www.thinkgeoenergy.com/new-lithium-from-geothermal-brine-project-to-kick-off-in-new-mexico-u-s/) (homelands of the Chiricahua Apache, not the Zuni, who are in the northern part of the state); and at [Thacker Pass](https://www.lithiumamericas.com/thacker-pass/) in northern Nevada. Reporting on the growing mineral crisis:
>
>> The spiraling environmental cost of our lithium battery addiction (Wired)  
>  Biden’s Clean Energy Push Could Actually Destroy Land in Latin America (Vice)  
> A Just(ice) Transition is a Post-Extractive Transition (London Mining Network)  
> 
> 
> The study of Zuni runoff agriculture—the oldest continuous agricultural practice—is based on extensive collaborative research between Zuni farmers, soil scientists, and ethnographers. Much of the science and commentary on the farmer-scientist collaboration can be found here:
>
>> Biogeochemical Studies of a Native American Runoff Agroecosystem   
>  [ Farmer-Scientist Collaboration for Research and Agricultural Development on the Zuni Indian Reservation, New Mexico, USA](%E2%80%9D)   
> 
> 
> There’s been a lot of work (and a lot more to go) to improve for diversity in the geosciences, including around race and disability. [Here is an example](https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/geology-everyone-making-field-accessible) of a field trip that centers accessibility. Shiro uses a body-powered (not electric) prosthetic arm, [as demonstrated by this guy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22YU6IgRkj0&t=629s&ab_channel=FiveDigitFilms).
> 
> Shoutout to #fieldworkfail on Twitter for the prairie dog idea. Many of them were compiled into an illustrated book that unfortunately is no longer available.
> 
> I have relied on journals to get through a field season, although in my case it wasn’t because I was in love with a collaborator.


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